Last month news that Microsoft’s next-generation console will pack three times processing power as the 360 sent ripples through the gaming community. Now the Xbox 720 is back in limelight, but this time gamers have no reason to celebrate.

Unnamed sources familiar with familiar with Durango, the internal codename for the work-in-progress console, told gaming blog Kotau that the console will require an active internet connection to be used.

“If there isn’t a connection, no games or apps can be started,” one tipster was quoted as saying.  “If the connection is interrupted then after a period of time–currently three minutes, if I remember correctly–the game/app is suspended and the network troubleshooter started.”

The same person claimed that the “always-online plan was in effect as recently as two weeks ago”, but a second source indicated that this is not the case. Not surprisingly, Microsoft declined to comment on the reports.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLur-sHTVvI

Always-on DRM is a way of ensuring that consumers use software the way copyright holders intend them to. This technique has proven to be a highly effective counter to video game piracy, but the problem is that it usually comes at the expense of paying customers: games become unplayable in the absence of a reliable internet connection, and server-side errors plague titles that have no multiplier functionality to speak of.    The big-ridden launch of SimCity 3  is the most recent example of what happens when this functionality backfires.

Should the rumors be true, the only party that will benefit from the Xbox 720 DRM is Sony. The company has confirmed that the Playstation 4 will not require an internet connection to start or run games, a feature (or rather lack of) that will give it a huge advantage over Microsoft’s rivaling console.